Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.
--H.L. Mencken

Sunday, November 07, 2004

Homegrown elitism

Yes, even on our very own Valparaiso University campus, liberal elitism remains alive and kicking, as this column by student Jordan Gill illustrates:

To anyone who voted for Bush, please do the honorable thing and tell the unemployed, the soldiers in Iraq and the students who won’t be introduced to the arts in school why you want them to remain that way. Tell the homosexuals why you like a man who thinks that it isn’t a hate crime to murder because of one’s sexual orientation. Tell the families of dead soldiers and dead civilians from 9/11 why you’re electing an administration that uses their names to go to war and spit on the Constitution. Tell the mothers whose children are dying or being born with disabilities why you’re voting for a man who put mercury back in their water.This is terrible, both morally and politically.

It's as if I had written "To anyone who voted for Kerry, please do the honorable thing and apologize to all the people you've hurt. Tell the aborted babies why you support a man who has voted to support their murder several times. Tell all the small business owners why you voted for an administration that supports taxes that would drive them out of business. Tell the middle class why you voted for a man who has proposed trillions of dollars in new spending, while promising to balance the budget, which leaves him with no way to pay for it other than the shirts from their backs. etc. etc."

Not only is this needlessly inflammatory, but these are all gross distortions of their positions.

Even if all of his assertions were true, that does not preclude the possibility that someone had voted for President Bush for reasons completely unrelated to these. Just because you vote for a candidate does not mean you agree with all of their positions, and even if you do, this sort of article, crying "shame on you" to Republicans everywhere, will accomplish nothing but offending those who read it. Such writing is shameful and divisive. Try actually persuading a conservative, rather than condemning him, next time.